The Member of Parliament for Lewes Maria Caulfield is supporting the Baker Dearing Educational Trust’s call for greater connections between STEM employers and schools.

Many workers employed in the STEM professions, when looking back at their journey from school to work, wished that there was a greater connection between employers and schools.

The report found that nearly (45%) of 20-35 year olds working in STEM related roles (science, technology, engineering and maths) believe the subjects they studied at school are useless in the world of work. A greater number (61%) thought that learning technical skills would have been more useful than studying traditional academic subjects.

Three out of five (60%) of STEM workers also reported that they didn’t believe teachers had a sufficient understanding of the labour market and a similar number (63%) felt that schools didn’t understand the skills employers needed.

Recent research by OECD suggests more than a quarter of pupils (28%) in England hope to be working in a science-related career by the time they are 30 years old.

However, the findings in this report suggest there is a big disconnect between what young people are learning in schools and what employers demand of them in the workplace.

Maria commented, “It is clear that some schools are not doing enough to encourage pupils about the viability of STEM subjects, nor are they effectively providing them with the skills needed to attain these jobs.

“In our increasingly industrialised and innovative world the STEM subjects will be needed more than ever, and therefore more must be done to adequately equip the next generation with the interest and skill sets that they will need to go into this field.

“However, I am optimistic that the UTC in Newhaven, started by Lord Baker, is a great way of those interested in the STEM subjects to get the training and experience in STEM locally.”